Present Tense is an aspiring brewery in Chicago looking to bring English style cask ales to those that call Chicago home.

Thursday, November 12, 2015

The sanctuary

It was a last minute decision. My plans to rent a car and drive around the
Dales had fallen through and I was frantically trying to find something to do
to avoid wasting one of my Saturdays in the UK – an all too common predicament
unfortunately. You might say I am a bit
overwhelmed with the self-imposed objective of experiencing all that the UK has
to offer and becoming an expert in the English beer culture. The options are limitless, the experiences
infinite. Already almost 5 weeks in, I
feel like I have only begun to understand North Yorkshire; and the more I
understand, the more it opens up intriguing aspects of the area that I want to
check out. I am working full time in a
brewery and only have the weekends to travel and experience other parts of the
country, and after working all week, waking up every morning at 4:30am, if I
were completely honest, it takes a lot for me to muster up the energy to fill my
weekends with travelling and making sense of a new destination.

So, with my naïve plans of traveling all over the UK taking
in all the sights and tastes seeming a little too ambitious, I reconsidered my
options for this particular Saturday. I
thought a destination a little closer to home was fitting; a brewery perhaps.

Prior to coming to the UK, my understanding of English beer
and brewing was pretty general. Sure,
the uninformed person may have considered me quite knowledgeable, but I tend to
hold myself to a pretty high standard, so I only saw through the lenses of what
I did not know. The things that I did
not know definitely outweighed what I did know.
And what I did know was usually just based on a conjecture – actually,
true of most things in life, until you experience it for yourself, most things
are just based on a conjecture. So my trip to the UK was chockfull of things
that I wanted to learn – but three things had definitely risen to the top: 1)
tasting proper cask beer, 2) experiencing proper pub culture, and 3) seeing a
brewery that used open fermentation, more specifically Yorkshire squares. I had become well versed in the first two,
but up until last Saturday the third had eluded me.

Black Sheep Brewery in Masham

I knew of two independent breweries in the UK that still
used Yorkshire squares. One was Samuel
Smith Brewery in Tadcaster, the UK’s closest thing to Willy Wonka’s factory – a
place that makes some fantastic beer, but a place that is virtually closed off
to the outside world. I had tried every
possible option to get a tour of their facility with absolutely no success; in
fact, I was told that the brewery had not been open to the public for over 10
years. The other brewery was Black Sheep
in Masham – a relatively new brewery, opened in 1992 – a brewery steeped in
tradition, founded by a sixth generation brewer in Masham. Considering that Masham was only 20 miles
from Harrogate, my plans for Saturday quickly fell into place.

A little background on Yorkshire squares may be necessary at
this point. There is not much that
differentiates the way that breweries brew beer. Obviously the ingredients change from beer to
beer, each brewery’s process will have its particular nuances, cleanliness
cannot be overemphasized, but at the end of the day, all breweries are
basically just steeping malt in a kettle, draining off the sugary liquid, and boiling
it with the addition of hops. What comes
next is often the secret in a brewery’s recipe – the fermentation – because, in
all actuality, this is the stage that actually makes beer. Most modern breweries use closed top
cylindroconical fermenters – for good reason – they are easy to clean, they produce
consistent results, and their closed construction eliminates any risk of
unwanted things getting into the beer.
Yorkshire squares, on the other hand, are a traditional open top fermentation
vessel, originally made with slate, but now modernized to be made of stainless
steel in a round shape. During the
fermentation, the yeast bubbles up onto a shelf positioned over the beer, and
the beer is repeatedly sprayed onto the yeast sitting on the shelf to
recirculate the beer and rouse the yeast.
Breweries that use them claim that they allow the yeast to produce
flavors during fermentation and gives the beer a distinct full, rounded palate that
cannot be produced in cylindroconical fermenters. However, the benefits of cylindroconical
fermenters are often too enticing for a brewery to consider using Yorkshire
squares, and now their use is primarily relegated to the diehard traditionalists. But tasting a beer fermented using Yorkshire
squares is a beautiful thing – actually, to replicate this flavor and feeling
in a beer is my aspiration for Present Tense – like I have said before…nothing
that is worthwhile in this world comes easy.

I scheduled a tour for 3:30 at Black Sheep. Even though Masham was only 20 miles from
Harrogate, it was not an easy trip without a car. A bus ride from Harrogate to Ripon and a taxi
from Ripon to Masham ended up taking over an hour, but I was welcomed into
Masham with a rainbow arching from one end of the sky to the other – a sure
sign that I had made the right decision for my Saturday destination.

What welcomed me in Masham

I arrived with about a 20 minutes to spare before the start
of the tour. I perused the brewery shop
a bit and then thought it appropriate to grab a pint to take with me on the
tour – a chocolate oat stout suited me just fine.

The tour started off with a video explaining the history of
the brewery – an interesting story involving the all too common path of most of
England’s historical breweries – being bought out by a corporate conglomeration
of breweries when times were tough for breweries in the mid-20th
century. Paul Theakston, the founder of
Black Sheep and the sixth generation of a brewing dynasty in Masham, just so
happened to be the victim of this buy out.
The namesake brewery, Theakston, was bought out, and instead of giving
into the corporate life, he quit and started his own brewery to continue
brewing the way that he believed in (https://www.blacksheepbrewery.com/about)
– and, thus, the name of the brewery – Paul being the “black sheep” of the
family.

Following the video was the obligatory explanation of the
brewing process and then the requisite show and tell of the ingredients that go
into beer – probably the 500th time I’ve hear that spiel - at least
I had a pint to get me through it. The
presentation eventually ended and the tour commenced - we made our way through
the doorway into the brewery.

View of tower brewery at Black Sheep

Climbing the stairs to a little platform overlooking the
brewery, a tall wooden roof peaked high above us. From this vantage point, the original
brewery, a traditional tower brewery, could be closely examined. The grist hopper, the mash tun, and the
copper kettle – none of the typical stainless steel of modern breweries could
be seen anywhere. This was all original
brewing equipment purchased from a defunct brewery and dropped through the roof
into place – a good indication of this brewery’s adherence to tradition. We then moved onto the adjacent room, the
second brewery, a more modern set up with more of the familiar stainless steel
vessels. Even though some modern
conveniences had been added to the setup, the brewery was full of character,
not similar to any other brewery that I had seen. It had been set up in a repurposed malt house
formerly owned by Lighthouse Brewery, and had made particularly efficient use
of the unconventional space. There is
definitely something to be said about the character of an old brewery compared
with the well laid out and standardized configuration of most modern breweries –
they are definitely more unique and intriguing, however, I am sure much less
convenient.

After listening to the tour guide give a thorough explanation
of the brewery, we finally made our way around the hop back, the mash tun, and
the grist hopper, and opened the door in the back corner of the brewery to discover
the purpose of my visit to this brewery – the fermentation room…the sanctuary
of Yorkshire rounds. It was a gorgeous
sight! Six large, round stainless steel
vessels – three lining the left side of the room and three lining the right
side of the room. On display for all to
see, resting on top of the round vessels, was the yeast; the magical creatures,
the mysterious creators of alcohol, the enigmatic sources of flavor and
character in beer. No need to hide
inside a closed tank, the yeast was able to receive the proper attention it deserved. Completely exposed to the surroundings, open
to all the elements for all to see, with people walking directly above the
vessels, the risk of infection seeming imminent, however, the yeast, kings of
this sanctuary, maintaining the sterile condition of the beer and warding off
any unwelcome guests. A perceived
nightmare to most other brewers, Black Sheep proudly displayed their fermenting
beer in their patented Yorkshire rounds – an unapologetic symbol of the six
generations of brewing that lives on through this tradition.

Yorkshire round at peak of fermentation.

The sanctuary.

Yorkshire round toward end of fermentation.

I was the last person from the group to leave the
fermentation room – it had become quite obvious throughout the duration of the tour
that my interest in what was on display was on a completely different level to
everyone else. With only myself left in
the room, I snapped several more pictures, I breathed in the air, I took mental
notes, I stared deeply into the fluffy, bubbling surface of the yeast –
dreaming of one day making Present Tense beer in these vessels.

I returned to my sense and found my way back to the tour. After a short summary from the tour guide,
the tour was over. The once elusive Yorkshire
square that had been but a picture in a book and a vague entry in Wikipedia, was
no longer just a conjecture. I had seen it
for myself. I had witnessed it in
operation. I had observed its dimensions
and construction. It was now real to me…and
the only appropriate thing to do at that point – enjoy a pint!